Chicago’s First Raw Cookie Dough Bar Has Opened on the Mag Mile

Last year, raw cookie dough started sweeping the country with cafes in New York, North Carolina, and Nebraska gaining attention for selling the edible treat in scooped form. The trend has arrived in Chicago at Water Tower Place thanks to Scooped Cookie Dough Bar. The shop is an offshoot of a San Antonio company and like the Texas location, the Chicago shop sells chilled scoops in a variety of flavors with sprinkles and other toppings.

Scooped San Antonio features combos such as Mexican Hot Chocolate (dark chocolate with cayenne), Cake Batter (vanilla cake batter cookie dough with the customer’s choice of toppings), and Monster (peanut butter cup, M&M’s, chocolate chips, oatmeal). They’ve become a popular Instagramable treat. Scooped opened in San Antonio in November.

Cookie dough isn’t new to Illinois, but cookie dough cafes are a different matter. There are retailers like Cookie Dough Creations in suburban Naperville and Cookie Dough Cafe in Normal that have been around for years.

Some experts feel that cookie dough is a “forbidden fruit.” Parents teach their kids that raw foods could result in sickness. That temptation makes the dough more alluring. Cookie Dough Creations’ website reads: “Be Bad. EAT IT RAW!!”

Last year, Dō — a New York-based cookie dough shop that opened a brick and mortar in 2017 in Manhattan — was at Windy City Smokeout. There were long lines for festival attendees who wanted something sweet to wash down stomachs full of barbecue.

Whatever the attraction, the trend has finally hit the city of Chicago. The city’s first cookie dough cafe is here.

Scooped Cookie Dough Bar, on the ground level of Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Avenue, open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.